I’ve told this to people before, and I am going through all the Gundam series as we speak right now. I have to say that my favourite so far has really been Victory. The themes, the elements, the push to fight to defend those who can’t; Victory is a series of all time, but that’s not really the point here since we are talking about Magic.
Meet Aragorn. If you don’t know much about him, considering that he is from a universe beyond, I’ll simplify the story for you with minimal spoilers. Aragorn is a human noble who eventually ascends to becoming a king. Through his adventures in The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is tasked with rallying soldiers to fight against the evils of the series’ major villain, Sauron.
For the purposes of this deck, since we are making at tribal deck that is seeking to perform Aragorn’s arduous task, we will be cheating the rules a little bit and adding our own special rule here by allowing the use of black cards. Aside from that, even if there is no payoff on Aragorn for running black cards, we want the full suite of power from all colours. Aragorn does not discriminate. He unites everyone to rally against the darkness facing the world that he lives within.
A simplification of Aragorn is that he provides multiple effects based upon the colours of spells that you cast, greatly rewarding you for diversifying your talents and especially the use of multi-colour spells overall.
The first immediate need we have to accomplish is having the foundation for our efforts. We need resources to be able to bring about our team and get our game plan going. Recruiting members above will help us achieve our required colours of mana. Fallaji Wayfarer, in particular, is an excellent piece to support our goals, allowing us to use convoke and get our squad to work together collectively to bring in more members.
While small and not exactly the most dominating and powerful on the battlefield, these members support our team by giving us additional ways to make the mana needed to cast our squad. Even if removed early, they will be remembered for their efforts in securing our victory. We cannot achieve our goals without their support. Noble Hierarch reminds us that we are never alone; even if we are performing small tasks, the team is right behind us, always there to give us a boost.
While we have the mana resources fulfilled, we still need ways to get hand, cards to cast and trigger Aragorn. We’ll continue to focus on multi-colour pairings as best as we can since we do benefit from most colours outside of black (but they’re still here because everyone is here). There will be some nuances to get the card draw going, but remember, we’re not alone. Other teammates will hop in where needed and bolster any weaknesses, reducing costs, and keeping our fight going.
Just because most of our cards are on our turn doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be aware of the schemes and moves our opponents are making. It’s equally important to adjust our game plan according to our opponents’ actions. We should be able to interrupt them at decisive points and also play our other creatures that may have other defensive utilities to protect our team. Knowledge is always power.
Our team is more than equipped for defence. That is the power of a well-rounded squad. Keep up the pressure on your opponents. While Sally Sparrow grants all of our teammates the keyword, Flash, we also have our own innate creatures here to enter the board whenever needed to either protect allies or interrupt our opponents. Izzet Staticaster is excellent and popping any repetitive small tokens or at least dealing a bit of damage to them for the rest of our squad to clean up if they dare attack us.
While Aragorn unites the team, we have our own small organizers at bay as well. Should Aragorn be removed, these other friends can look to take his place or provide small supports until Aragorn can return. Annie Flash, a veteran with plenty of experience, grants her own unique form of assistance to the squad, educating the youngins and bringing them back from the graveyard should any mishaps occur. Samut reminds our team that we shouldn’t just sit back lightly; sometimes, action is the correct course to take. Samut tells us to rise up and keep up the pressure on our opponents, helping everyone with pushing through immediately with haste while also being reserved and able to untap a friend if need be at the cost of tapping herself. Surrak Dragonclaw takes the front line, preventing others from being disturbed by our opponents’ tricks and verbal dismissals while helping them with running over our enemies through trample. Leading by example, these characters and many others represent the multiple unique talents that are spread throughout our force, giving us that strength and unity that makes it difficult for our opponent to disrupt.
While the previous teammates have the ability to hop on board whenever needed, that doesn’t mean we should discount our ground troops at home. Everyone is equally as important in our efforts to win against our opponents. General Kudro of Drannith and Jirina, Dauntless General remind us that there will be setbacks. Our opponents are going to have threats or attempt to take us down. We will struggle with minor adversities. There are going to be difficulties, but we can fight through despite any losses. We can always rebuild. And that’s best exemplified by Boromir, Gondor’s Hope who seeks to recruit a friend whenever he enters the board or attacks. We must have hope. Kyler, Sigardian Emissary and Maja, Bretagard Protector remind us that our strength lies in numbers. As we accumulate more for our team, we become harder and harder to deal with and our strength only continues to grow exponentially. Lastly, Torens, Fist of the Angels, while not standing out, shares with and reminds us how even the most meek recruit can become an integral member over time with enough training and support. We must not neglect our front-liners and youth. It is through everyone’s combined work and strength that we will achieve victory.
The enemy will seek to divide us. They know that unity is our strength. We will build more numbers than them. We have more diverse talents, skills, and unique strengths that they won’t even be able to imagine, and they know that. That’s why we must not fight against one another. We are on the same team. All our humans are equally as important and striving for the same goal to achieve victory. And allies will come from all directions and worlds, carrying their own experiences and sets of skills that only help in aiding our cause. As such, we should embrace the strangeness, the absurdity, and the uniqueness that comes with each and every one of our troops, from the lowest squad member to Aragorn, the Uniter.
Look around. You have the entire Magic universe and even universes beyond supporting you. The sheer amount of possibilities and humans ready to join our cause is nearly infinite. Every small interaction, every large swing, every niche play; all of them add up to bring us that sweet, sweet victory.
And I know that our deck is currently geared towards exclusively creatures, but there are always some room for some other cards if you’d like. I’ve given some suggestions above with card names that best represent how to support this deck. Protect the Negotiators shields the squad while potentially giving us an additional friend and making our opponents suffer for each of our existing members on the battlefield. And They Shall Know No Fear protects our humans for they will be fearless against any adversity as long as they stick together. Stand United might be a simple spell at first, but in a pinch, with each member protecting one another back-to-back, we will be shields up.
While I do love the tune of Stand Up to The Victory, people often don’t give enough love to the lesser remembered second opening of Victory: Don’t Stop, Carry On!